Sacramento — The accepted wisdom in the Capitol has always been that legislative floor speeches never change votes. Maybe. But they do change views.
For example, a 90-minute debate Thursday in the state Senate on a bill to allow same-sex marriages: It changed my view.
Actually, it cleared up my muddled view, which really began shifting eight years ago during a chat at the back of the Senate chamber with then-President Pro Tem Bill Lockyer.
How do you feel about gay marriage? I asked.
"You know," he replied, "people have so many problems and life's so short, if letting gays 'marry' gives them some joy and happiness, why not? I say let them do it."
Lockyer later got elected attorney general and now is dutifully defending in court the state's ban on same-sex marriages. But he hasn't changed his personal view.
It made sense to me, but I wasn't ready to go there yet. Certainly, homosexual couples should be entitled to all the protections and privileges of heterosexuals -- call it a "civil union" or "domestic partnership," a civil right or plain fairness. But calling it a "marriage" could devalue the institution in some minds, especially young people's, I thought.
Until the Senate debate.
Probably the speech that firmly clicked me into a "yeah, why not?" mode was by Sen. Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto). He talked about marriage "reinforcing traditional values: accountability, monogamy, commitment, the rule of law ... "
We should be encouraging that as a society, he asserted.
Sen. Gil Cedillo (D-Los Angeles) followed up: "Marriage is a phenomenal institution.... The glue of our society.... By extending it, we strengthen it, not threaten it....
"The threat to marriage today is poverty, discrimination, lack of healthcare ... domestic abuse, child abuse."
As the compelling debate continued, I kept thinking about what Lockyer had said -- and the people suffering in hurricane hell, the American soldiers being blown up, the gas price gougers. And I wondered why anybody should worry about what we call two people living together in a loving relationship.
There was a lot of talk about God.
My god doesn't fret about homosexuality, but clearly many people believe that theirs does.
"I don't believe there's a member of this chamber who doesn't ... know that [same-sex marriage] is not the right thing to do," said Sen. Dennis Hollingsworth (R-Murrieta). "I believe that knowledge comes from a higher power.... That higher power is also the higher power that created the institution of marriage."
